Republican Sen. Marco Rubio called on nearly two dozen U.S. universities to end their partnerships with Chinese universities assisting the Chinese Communist Party’s military buildup.
In letters fired off to 22 schools across the United States, Rubio urged officials to terminate academic and research partnerships with Chinese universities that work with the Chinese Communist Party to support Beijing’s military-industrial complex.
“I remain deeply concerned by the [People’s Liberation Army’s] aggressive campaign to infiltrate America’s research enterprise,” said Rubio, who has made the threat posed by China his signature concern.
Among the schools Rubio identified were Stanford University, Rutgers University, the University of Delaware, and Arizona State University.
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Rubio cited a September speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping calling for his nation to “exhaust all means” to recruit intelligent and innovative professionals from around the world to help build China’s military. Beijing initiatives such as the Thousand Talents program and Double First Class University Plan are part of the CCP’s strategy to acquire cutting-edge technology to achieve economic and military dominance, Rubio said.
Rubio said China is “fully integrating” China’s private industry and its civilian universities into its military-civil fusion strategy, with nearly 70 Chinese civilian universities designated as part of China’s military efforts by the State Administration of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense.
The Chinese government says SASTIND’s major responsibilities relate to “the nuclear weapon, aerospace technology, aviation, armament, watercraft, and electronic industries.” China adds that SASTIND “serves the needs of national defense, military forces, national economy, and military-related organizations.”
Rubio said that each of the nearly two dozen U.S. schools on his list was partnering with at least one of the PLA-linked civilian schools in China. Several schools also currently house or previously housed Confucius Institutes, which were introduced as part of a CCP initiative to promote Chinese culture at Western schools but have come under suspicion of being fronts for spying and intellectual property theft.
Rubio’s letter to Stanford pointed to the school’s “robust academic and research partnership” with Peking University, with which Stanford still jointly operates a Confucius Institute on Stanford’s campus. Rubio said public records show that Peking “actively supports Beijing’s military-industrial complex.”
The letter to Rutgers pointed to the New Jersey school’s partnership with Jilin University, with which it had also operated a since-shuttered Confucius Institute. The senator said records show Jilin actively supports Beijing’s military-industrial complex and “is directly involved in classified Chinese defense research.”
Rubio’s letter to the University of Delaware said it appears the school maintains a partnership with Xiamen University, with which it previously operated a Confucius Institute. Rubio said Xiamen “actively supports Beijing’s military-industrial complex” and that a joint supervision agreement between the Chinese Ministry of Education, the Fujian Provincial Government, and SASTIND is designed “to engage in classified Chinese defense research.”
The senator’s letter to Arizona State University pointed out that the school maintains a “robust relationship” with Sichuan University, which “actively supports Beijing’s military-industrial complex.”
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FBI Director Christopher Wray said last week that “there is just no country that presents a broader threat to our ideas, our innovation, and our economic security than China.”
